The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1887-01-21

/ The Problem of the Inebriate" was the
4 before the Medical Society of the District
4 by Dr. Godding, the Superintendent Of the
/ Government Hospital for the insane re-
Gently. What is meant by the ineb-
/ riate?" lie asked Not every man who
/ gets drunk is what we call an inebriate
/ The Doctors answer to the question was
a brief memoir of the typical inebriate,
one of the real flesh and blood. 1t was
none other than the famous Col Geo. H.
| Butler. the nephew of Gen. BENZ. f. Butler.
who died in Washington about five months
| ago. At one time Col. Butler was, in
many respects, the most entertaining writer
on the press of New York city.
''My first acquaintance with the Colo
nel, said the Doctor, was in May, 1878,
when he was brought to st. Elizabeth on
/ the certificate of two physicians TO his in
! sanity. In May 1856. almest exactly
| eight years later, | parted with him for the
/ last time. within three weeks of his DEATH
| Just turned of forty when | first knew him,
and Looking only on that magnificent
physique with which Nature had endowed
| him, lie would pass for a Young man.
| Scrutinizing more closely you saw that The
ARGUS sensilis had come, the vital energies
/ burned down, the wit was at its drcgs and
i'll every sense was it true that the virtue
had gone out of him. There was felt only
an insane thirst for whisky. and what his
uncle in Il conversation with me once
styled his fatal facility in writing The
! latter, although deterioratcd with all the
/ ct II a D.I hi
hack writer. a precareus income from his
articles. These were society articles of
| the highest sort, but with now and then
a scntillation of the old wit which still
! set the tables in Il roar. All else was
! contemporary, il he ever had it, positions
of trust which he had held and lost by his
vices, and troops of friends that he had
alienated, for this Bohemian prince of dead
| beats was as supremacy selfish q man as
| have ever known.
The affection of two wives had been
wasted on him: the devotion of the last
which was something ineXplicablc. ayailed
no more to turn him TO y:rtuous courses
| than signing the temperance pledge did to
wean him from his cups; and the influence
of both had less restraining power over him
| than the lightest Wifi from his cigar, As
the typical reformed inebriate lie was tile
making and the undoins of | know not
how many temperance organizations. of
! the varioaS antidotes for d'ink he was the
universal solvent the thirst within him
was his one strong point, the only thing
! that waxed not old
What was the disease? Looking for
| intellectual insanity, you did not find it:
| yet there were observed phenomena
psychic in character worthy of note When
/ first received. and so long as the alcohol
was circulating in his tissues. there was
more or less indifference and confusion OF
! ideas, but apparently no more than would
| follow a debauch in any one Then came
a period of rest, when everything was first
class and he apparently at peace with all
the world: was even tolerant of the va
carries Of the insane patients about him.
| life was a pleasant jest and bis comfortable
shelter in am insane hospital the greatest
| joke of all. Then came a time when life
was real and of very bitter earnest. Sore
| headed was no name for il; he lound fault
with everything; complained of his food
| abused his wife; malioned his nurses:
made even the unfortunate insane who
came within his reach miserable by one
I dabolical device or another: then claimed
that his own life was being made wretched
by being immured with grinning idiotic
lunatics and attendants Of still lower
order OF intelligence. Still held IN durance.
he ould, after months OF enforced absti-
hence, hisperiodic cravings for drink re-
manning unsatisfied, become moody, dull,
| almost imbecile, as if a kind Of mental dry
rot had come over him. Now let the OPP
portuni y be given him to rouse his brain
and liver by fortnight's debauch and its
| accompanying abstinence from food; the
old life would come back, the wit sparkled
again and with Bulwer's Margrave he felt
the elixir tingling in his veins.
Seeing how large portion of these
eight years was passed in institutions Of
one kind and another, one wonders when
he was sober, Just as His frequent appear
ance at the bar OF the Police Court led
Judge Smell to exclam. Colonel, are you
always drnnk?' To which, with the gray
ity of a pundit the Colonel replied,
Does your Honor take me for million
airc . s. w. II. HNa. Sfur